Just eight men hold the same amount of wealth as the poorest half of humanity, according to new data compiled by Oxfam.
Released to coincide with the annual World Economic Forum meeting of political and business leaders in Davos, Switzerland, and the impending inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, Oxfam said that new and better data on global wealth distribution indicates that the poorest half of the world’s population—more than 3.6 billion people—has less wealth than previously thought. Better data has improved numbers from India and China in particular, it said.
Oxfam based its calculations on global wealth distribution data from the Credit Suisse 2016 Global Wealth Databook, while the Forbes billionaires list, last published in March 2016, provided data on the world’s wealthiest people. Paul O’Brien, vice president for policy and campaigns, called the numbers “mind-boggling” and the “sobering reality of 2017” in a statement on Sunday.
The eight richest men in the world—Bill Gates, Amancio Ortega, Warren Buffett, Carlos Slim Helu, Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg, Larry Ellison and Michael Bloomberg—have a combined net worth of more than $426 billion, according to Forbes data.
The report shows “that the gap between rich and poor is far greater than had previously been estimated and details how big business and the super-rich are fueling the inequality crisis by dodging taxes, driving down wages and using their power to influence politics,” Oxfam said in a statement.
The election of Trump in November 2016 has further highlighted wealth disparities in the U.S., said Oxfam. Multi-billionaire Trump takes office at a time when the top 1 percent of American society control 42 percent of the country’s wealth. (Some studies say the latter figure is much lower.) Oxfam said it’s concerned by proposals by Trump and some members of Congress to give large tax cuts to the wealthy; remove worker protections and punish refugees and immigrants coming to the U.S.
“Oxfam is also concerned that to lead the agencies that protect workers, the environment and human rights, President-elect Trump has nominated individuals who have spent their careers attacking the rules, undermining protections and resisting progress,” the organization said.
Ahead of the 2016 Davos conference, Oxfam released a report stating that 62 people had as much combined wealth as the poorest half of humanity in 2015. Utilizing the new data, released on Sunday, shows that nine billionaires, not 62, would have had the equal amount of wealth as half the world’s population that year.
Courtesy: MSN
The rich keep getting richer. It’s good some of them are giving back to the society through charity programmes.
Wow it’s amazing how the wealth of just 8 Americans can equal the wealth of half of America itself, even though the disparity between the rich and the poor is relatively unfair from a lay man’s point of view. I personally think that America itself has succeeded in making it’s citizens very lazy and the Trumps’s proposal to give a high tax cut to the wealthy is unfair because they worked for their money and will further encourage the average American to remain in his comfort zone. After all it’s their hard earn money and most of them still give to the poor through Charity
Inequality unfortunately has continued to increase with globalization and the world needs to take concrete steps to address this- a situation where over 60% of the world is livibg in poverty needs to be addressed- it is the cause of several of the insecurity problems we have in the world today
Terrorism, civil strife, increased crime, refugee crisis, immigration crisis to the developed countries- are all results of inequality and poverty. The world has to wake up!!
Income distribution has to be more equitable. Period!!
Nobody should regulate wealth creation! That’s like going back to communism!
Wealth is created by enterprise and creativity- it is up to those who are struggling to see the opportunities around them and create wealth from them! Look at Nigeria, with all the blessings of natural resources that we have over 90% of the population still live in poverty- are we going to blame the 8 richest men in the world for that?
I don’ t think it ‘s a question of regulating the rich. Rather the rich may be moblised to oriente some of their wealth to charity works in the society. In this way, even the poor can benefit their good deed.
Most of the world’s richest are Americans and the reason is simple, America provides the enabling environment for enterprise to flourish as opposed to African countries where the power elite and politicians supress the poor and oportunities for real enterprise. The result is that over 90% of Africans survive at less than $2 per day and live in squalid conditions.